You Know You've Got It Bad When...

You know you've got it bad when you start daydreaming about permeable pavement. I think they are so beautiful (see right) and make so much sense! By allowing rain water to infiltrate through your driveway or sidewalk it is reducing stormwater runoff, allowing groundwater to recharge, and allowing excess nutrients to be filtered out. All the while, you are allowing that excess water to get off of your sidewalk or roadway in a faster and safer way; keeping your feet drier. Permeable Interlocking Concrete Pavement (PICP) has been shown to even stand up against snowplows and rock salt or sand. PICP was used for a main street in North Bay, Ontario and after 8 years of main street traffic, only 4% of the pavers were depressed and less than 1% of the pavers were cracked. Another plus; they come in light, earthy colors that are pleasing to the eye and more reflective than the traditional black asphalt used for roads, therefore decreasing the "urban heat island effect" by reflecting sunlight.

Some more numbers: the runoff coefficient (an indicator of imperviousness) of asphalt pavement is 0.95 compared to 0.25 for PICP. Now, I think that is pretty cool, and so do all my salmon friends! You see, impervious pavement directs stormwater (and nutrients and toxics from the fields and parking lots) into the rivers and bays around your area polluting the water and contributing excess sediment to the stream system.

I don't know why all of these wonderful LID (low-impact development) ideas are just coming to me now -- maybe it's because I am in a position to promote and implement some of them -- but it is great!

Spotting Trains

Remember when I was talking about the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad up in Amboy, WA? Well, here is what I meant when I said we walked down the tracks and got to climb on a bunch of their converted cars:

This converted rail car was still full of pine needles from BYCX's holiday cut-your-own Christmas tree special train ride.

This funny looking thing was called a "speeder car" and it went surprisingly fast.

Dabbles in Everything

They seem to have settled on a doorknob at the post office but there is still crazy stuff going on around town. The local fish market offers a special in their window “Will trade crab for leprechaun.”

My landlady’s puppy Lily got her first experience with snow this weekend. It has snowed the last two nights. Yesterday morning she attempted to eat as much of the mystery mixture as she could and this morning the deck was still covered with an inch of snow when she went out. At first she stepped lightly, unsure of the cold compound, but then she started running around frantically energized by her discovery. It was a wonderful sight.

The weather this weekend has been a wonderful sight in general. On Saturday I helped build a wood fence on the Habitat for Humanity project site in a constant drizzle. On Sunday I went to the Cape Arago State Park and as I was standing on the cliff edge a dark cloud front moved in and started to shower tiny hail on me. The park cleared out except for me. I enjoyed the “tink tink” of the hail falling as I continued to explore. Then I sat down and wrote a poem about the fleeting convergence of nature I experienced there. Now, don’t laugh, this is my first attempt at natural history poetry in a very long time…


The Unlikely Calm

The waves pound down upon the basalt mounds and valleys that make up the coast – white and frothy with the agitation of their journey towards shore

The hail momentarily falls down upon everything – small, white balls of frozen water forced out of the clouds on their voyage towards the abrupt shore

The wind blows the moss-covered pine trees – sturdy with years of stubborn rooting against the winds that are flung upon the shore

The shore thrives on such a multitude of convergences
dark clouds meet white clouds
waves meet their death on the basalt cliffs
wind meets resistance with the gnarled trees

Everything seems at once at peace and at once at odds with their convergence. The power with which they meet their fate makes it feel as though it is forced by some higher hand

But if you look closely there is a moment – after one wave crashes, after one gust of wind blows, after one cloud moves through – when all things flow together

The water flows down to a common valley in the basalt, the sun glistens one streak of comfort on the broken water, and the bird chirps in the tree giving peace to the unlikely calm

Doodads

This weekend I went up to Amboy, Washington to meet with my fellow Oregon AmeriCorps interns. We played a rousing game of hide or seek then went to tour the operations of a local volunteer-restored railroad. They let us climb on a restored 1929 locomotive and then ride a speeder car through a tunnel and down a large stretch of their track. The Chelatchie Prairie Railroad has lots of fun-sounding themed rides including a train robbery performance and a cut-your-own-Christmas tree ride. I think it would be fun to take someone on the train robbery themed ride without telling them and see how they react when vintage dressed cowboys ride up to the train on horses!

Later that night we were sitting around playing a board game called “Balderdash” where the goal is to come up with the best explanation for a word, name, date, movie title, or abbreviation. After hearing all of the other players’ explanations and the actual answer, the players vote on which explanation they think is the right one. I thought it was hilarious that so many people thought my explanation for what happened on April 11, 1919 was the right one. Here it is:

…A pig named “Daphne” walked into the Waldorf Hotel and ate a 20-dollar-bill…

3 of the 5 other players thought my story was the right one saying “that pig story sounds so familiar…” The actual answer was “The first pop-up toaster was released.” I guess I have seen too many Cary Grant comedies!

In other news, I watched the official music video for Michael Franti’s song “The Obama Song” today and let me tell you, it is pretty awesome. You can watch it for yourself on Franti’s YouTube page here.